Colin Newman
Bastard
Swim

By no means technically accomplished or perfect in the classical sense, Brian Eno and Colin Newman's singing have some things that are much more important when it comes to rock and roll: character and an endearing uniqueness. But you won't hear either of them crooning on their new solo albums, and it's not because they don't love the sounds of their own voices. They share the misguided notion that vocals are part of rock's dead past, while meandering electronic instrumentals are apparently the bright, bold future.

Too few rock innovators have resisted the lucrative lure of nostalgia in their careers, but Eno and Newman have always stood out by refusing to look back. After leaving Roxy Music in the early '70s, Eno broke new ground on four influential progressive rock albums complete with vocals: Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy), Another Green World and Before and After Science. These were interspersed with instrumental discs that helped launch the ambient genre, and a long list of innovative productions for artists such as David Bowie, Talking Heads and U2.

Newman has been equally influential, recording three albums with Wire from 1977 to 1979 that can be heard as pointing the way from punk to new wave to the roots of what would become alternative. He nodded to Eno with his own ambient release (1981's provisionally entitled the singing fish) and recorded four strong, vocally oriented solo albums before joining a reactivated Wire in 1986. Alone among reunited peers such as Pere Ubu, Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols, Wire refused to play any of its old songs, recording and performing only new material until it once again disbanded in 1992.

At some point, Eno and Newman both started subscribing to the very '90s idea that everything that can be done with the conventional "rock" song -- i.e., one with vocals -- has been done. They came to view the sampling, sequencing and programming of electronic dance music as the new frontier, and interesting rhythms as much more important than involving vocal melodies. But there are problems with this view, and chief among them is the fact that neither artist is making new music as vital as his old stuff.

Eno told the BBC that The Drop is "what you might expect from sketchily describing modern jazz to a person who'd never heard it and who then forgot most of what you said and tried to play it anyway." He cited Nigerian bandleader Fela Anikulapo Kuti (who died August 2 of complications from AIDS) and the '70s recordings of the Mahavishnu Orchestra as his inspirations. Though he didn't mention it, it's also obvious he's been listening to a lot of drum and bass. But Eno's descriptions of his new sounds are much more interesting than the sounds themselves.

Despite fanciful titles such as "Boomcubist" and "Rayonism," the 13 tracks on The Drop are aimless, boring, synth-driven jams. They lack Fela's strong melodies and Mahavishnu's rhythmic drive, and they have neither the hypnotic qualities of Eno's best ambient music -- Thursday Afternoon and On Land -- nor the hookiness and emotional impact of Wrong Way Up, his 1990 collaboration with John Cale and the last album on which he sang.

Newman hasn't sung on a solo album since It Seems in 1988. That disc and its predecessor, 1986's Commercial Suicide, were ambitious efforts that mixed sequenced grooves, minimalist instrumental parts and distinctive vocal melodies paired with impressionistic lyrics. Newman knows that the last combination is what he's famous for, but, always eager to thwart expectations, he appears on the cover of Bastard giving us the finger, and the only voice we hear on any of the nine tracks is that of Malka Spigel, his wife and a former member of Minimal Compact, who sings on the closing "Turn."

Newman says he was inspired by the (his word) "postrock" bands on Chicago's Kranky and Thrill Jockey labels, in particular Tortoise. By this I assume he means he was prompted to include some heavily effected guitar -- an instrument he's mostly avoided in recent years -- in spacey ambient house instrumentals such as "Sticky" and "May." Overall, Bastard is a catchier and hence more engaging album than The Drop, but in both cases, listeners unfamiliar with Newman or Eno's old work will be able to name a dozen releases by newer artists that they prefer, while longtime fans are likely to say, "This stuff is okay, but I really wish he sang on this record."

I've interviewed Eno several times, and I maintain an e-mail friendship with Newman. I've thrown this criticism at both of them, and their response is that the people who expect them to sing are nostalgic for their old work and unjustly limiting where they might go in the future. But that's a cop-out: Both men are cult heroes precisely because they never accepted any limitations in the studio or in their music. They consistently stretched rock's boundaries by plowing through roadblocks with an open-minded attitude and tools such as Eno's famous "Oblique Strategies," a deck of cards offering wonderfully non-specific advice ("Honor thy error as a hidden intention" and "Ask people to work against their better judgment" are two of the most famous tips) that would be consulted whenever there was a creative dilemma.